Aoko and Touko cautiously approached the man leaning against the roadside. First, they waved a hand in front of his face, then called out to him a couple of times, but the man didn't respond at all.
"Could he be dead?" Touko asked doubtfully. "But his soul is still in his body."
"Look at his face," Aoko said with a frown. "It seems like something inside him has been extracted... That's why he looks like a dried-up corpse now."
Touko carefully examined the man's face beneath his helmet. She found that his skin had undergone severe waxification, tightly clinging to his skull.
Normally, humans who deteriorated to this extent would surely be dead, but this man was somehow still alive. Was it due to his constitution? Or was it something about the environment of this world? Or... were these people simply the undead?
"Forget about him for now," Aoko said, frowning. "It seems we have a guest arriving."
Touko looked up and followed Aoko's gaze. In the direction Aoko was looking, a tall, skeletal figure wearing a tattered robe, with its upper body exposed, leaped down from a stone monument and sprinted toward them at high speed.
Since they had just arrived in this otherworldly realm, Touko naturally treated any confrontation more seriously than she would on Earth. She opened a zipper on her backpack, and with a slithering sound, a pool of black cat liquid emerged.
"Cheshire, restrain him," Touko said. "If that's not possible, just kill him."
The plump cat, Cheshire, flashed a wide grin, its mouth full of sharp teeth stretching to its cheeks. It quickly melted into the ground, transforming into a large black shadow that encircled Touko.
Aoko frowned as she observed this unfriendly guest. She noticed that his head was covered in grotesque, misshapen horns, some of which even pierced into his eyes. Yet, despite these deformities, the tall man moved swiftly and gracefully, wielding a pair of circular blades that seemed designed to be thrown in an attack.
In Aoko's experience with the Lands Between she was familiar, such beings were referred to as omens of calamity. Typically, these creatures would have horns covering their entire body. However, this omen only had horns on his head, with no signs of them being sawed off.
So far, Aoko hadn't seen any of the familiar landscapes of those Lands Between in this area. She wasn't sure if this was due to differences between the game and reality, but the disparity seemed far too great.
Cheshire's shadow quickly closed in on the omen. From within the shadow, it opened a gaping, toothy maw, its crescent-shaped eyes fixed on its prey. However, the prey showed no hint of fear.
Suddenly, Cheshire extended a series of sharp spikes from the shadow, but the enemy wielding the strange weapons dodged them with movements akin to a dance. He then threw one of his circular weapons into Cheshire's shadow.
Of course, Cheshire the cat had weaknesses, but physical attacks weren't one of them—or rather, such direct physical damage couldn't harm it at all.
Cheshire extended a tendril-like shadow, cleverly inserting it into the center of the circular weapon, successfully taking control of the enemy's weapon.
The omen froze for a moment, abruptly reaching out toward his weapon, only to find it stuck fast in Cheshire's shadow. He couldn't retrieve it.
While Cheshire was in the process of completely swallowing the weapon into its shadow, it secretly launched a surprise attack from behind. Taking advantage of the moment when the omen was stunned by the loss of his weapon, Cheshire tightly bound him with its shadows.
Although the omen struggled violently, the familiar of the Third Magician was far too powerful for a mere grunt like him to break free. All he could do was let out some incomprehensible roars of anger, completely unable to resist.
"You or me?" Touko asked Aoko. "It seems the local factions here aren't very welcoming to outsiders like us."
"You ask him first," Aoko replied. "You caught him, and I have some guesses about this place. Let's talk after you're done questioning him."
Touko nodded, standing in front of the omen. The gold light of her Mystic Eyes began to shimmer, enormous amounts of magical energy refracting within the multi-layered summoning of her eyes. Finally, the power from her gaze entered the omen's remaining eye.
Aoko thought it might be her imagination, but the omen seemed to become even more enraged and manic upon seeing Touko's golden Mystic Eyes. Despite his body being covered in injuries from his struggle, he didn't stop resisting.
However, once Touko's magic took effect, the creature quieted down. Or rather, his body and consciousness were now completely under the control of Touko.
"How is it?" Aoko asked. "Did you get any valuable information?"
"Hmm..." Touko frowned. "His mind... it's a bit chaotic. But there are some pieces of useful information."
"This guy... belongs to a race called the 'Horned People,'" Touko said. "They're fighting against... um, against all races that don't have horns. Their main enemy is someone called 'Mesemo'. That's how it's pronounced."
"Mesemo?" Aoko repeated, puzzled. She had never heard of this name. "Anything else?"
"Let me see... hmm... burning? And something about the offspring of a certain woman..." Touko continued to dig into the Horned One's memories.
However, the Horned One's body began trembling more and more violently as Touko probed deeper as if resisting her Mystic Eyes.
Just as Touko increased the output of her magic to uncover deeper information, the Horned One's head exploded. A series of horns seemed to grow from inside his brain, piercing through his skull and killing him completely.
"Meow?"
Cheshire the fat cat looked at Touko pitifully, as if to say, "It wasn't the cat's fault, okay?" Touko understood this and didn't blame it.
A faint, almost imperceptible golden light flew out from the Horned One's corpse and toward Cheshire. Curious, Cheshire licked at it with its tongue before swallowing it whole.
Neither Touko nor Aoko noticed this detail, as their attention was still on the Horned One's corpse and the fragmented intel Touko had obtained.
Cheshire quickly flowed back into Touko's backpack, leaving only one large eye peeking out, curiously observing its surroundings.
"This guy had a strong will," Touko said. "I couldn't get much information. It seems these people are fighting against the faction led by that person named Mesemo. Beyond that, I couldn't find out more. His brain had some kind of defensive mechanism."
"Forget it," Aoko said, shaking her head. "Toss him aside. Let's head to those ruins up ahead. Maybe we'll discover more there."
The Aosaki sisters continued along the road, encountering numerous charred, blackened undead along the way.
These undead wandered. Some would lunge at them to attack, while others simply circled in place or searched the ground for something.
Without exception, all of these undead had horns of various sizes on their heads, seemingly belonging to the Horned People race.
Aoko dealt with the ones that charged at them using magical projectiles and ignored the ones wandering in circles. Their journey went relatively smoothly, as these creatures were quite weak.
"There's a stone monument over there," Touko said, pointing ahead. "Let's go check it out."
PS: I think the world is Elden Ring.
PS2: I'm not familiar this game. If there's some mistake please point it out.